Chapter 63

Monday

My head was screaming, new day, new day, come on, wake up, enjoy the new day.

What's up with that?

The two laying with me were so sweet. They each had a leg and an arm over me, protectively. For a couple of supposed lezzies, they sure were cuddly with me, a guy.

The clock said it was almost six and my body clock was saying let's get up. My tank was telling me it was overfull and needed draining. Ever so gently, I got out from between the two girls and went to the bathroom. I slipped on my peg, trying to decide whether to form, swim, or put on my sport leg and run.

Wanda leaned in the doorway and said, "Come with me, I need you to form with me." Decision made. I slipped on shorts and a T-shirt and went out with Wanda. We had not been stretching for more than a few minutes when Marie and Jan came down the stairs and joined us.

We were ending our final step when Lisa and Tina came out of the house naked. They waved before diving into the pool. We were right behind them when we noticed Jimmy following Angie, and again being bashful. Some of us were swimming hard and some were swimming leisurely. The exercise was good for all of us.

Dennis made his appearance and jumped into the pool. He didn't notice his sister until she pushed him under water. Tina said, "You naughty boy, walking around naked in front of your sister."

"Me naughty," Dennis scoffed. "You're the one who's walked around the house naked all your life. I remember the big day when you were showing everyone you had new hairs on you,,,,, " Glub, Glub, Glub. Dennis was back under water.

"Don't drown him, I like him a lot," said Marie, as she pulled him up so he could breathe.

"I won't hurt him too much. He's always telling stories about me."

Dennis was about to say something, but you could see it in his eyes that he wanted to call a truce. He just smiled.

We got out, some showered outside and some went inside. I slipped my leg on and went to my bathroom and did my thing. I was dressed in slacks and a shirt, thinking I might have to put a disguise on. I could always wear a vest or my tour jacket instead of a sport coat. I was just going to the air park today, so I could drive the Mustang or swap with someone.

We were having a decent breakfast when Lisa solved the car problem. "Why don't you ride with me? I have a little trip up to Savannah, coming back via Tallahassee. I'll be back by four, so you can ride home with me then. No one can see in my car from the side, so when we leave, just duck. If there's anyone watching, they won't follow."

"Good deal, Lisa. I'm not sure whether I'll really get to do much with the Lear guys."

Lisa asked, "Did you read that manual I gave you?"

"Sure did, cover to cover, twice. I think I have it down."

"Tell you what, I'll tell them to quiz you and see how you do. If they think you know the material, you'll be flying a factory Lear by noon."

"That would be neat, I'd like that."

Lisa asked, "How many hours do you have in a Lear and G5 total?"

"Probably going on over a hundred."

"Shoot, when they total up your time, they're going to sign you off quick. Just fly and have fun. Those guys will teach you some neat stuff. Pay attention so you can teach that bird too."

"Do you really think you have the navigation system down?"

"Lisa, you taught me and you beat me to death learning it in the G5 on our trips. You're a slave driver sometimes, the way you teach."

"Good, you might have learned then."

By this time we were parking at S&S Charter. Shoot, I could have ridden with Jimmy too, but his Jeep is open and it is hard to hide in that.

Lisa gave me a kiss and went into the office. I walked over to the empty maintenance hangar to see what was up. The four mechanics were setting up some tables with charts and lists. Jimmy said, "We're going to pull annuals on the birds while they are here. It's pretty neat that the factory is having us do it. We're going to get the certification for an authorized repair center. That'll make this place some bucks. S&S will once again be highlighted on the map."

There was a lot of noise coming from the runway. Three Lear jets landed one right after the other and taxied up to the front of the maintenance hangar. They were shut down and you could see the pilots using a checklist while going through the shutdown procedures.

The doors began opening and the pilots came out and stretched. The charter company office staff and pilots came out to meet the new arrivals. I hung back while they went through all the greetings. I joined John when he waved me over. He said, "This is a special student that you might want to go ahead and qualify this week instead of just waiting around to test drive your birds. He's got a ton of hours and has studied the manual. I suggest when you three have time, have him take you to lunch someplace and give him indigestion by asking questions for a couple hours. Make him buy you lunch, then do what you think you need to do with him." The one guy took John off to the side and I heard, "If you have time and can do it that would be really great. He has a lot of hours in,,,,, " I didn't hear the rest.

After coffee and relaxing, they were all interested in how the guys were going to inspect the aircraft. The guys already had one inside, with one of engines sitting on a giant stand. Jimmy said, "This thing will be in a million pieces in a few minutes. We should be able to do one of these a day if nothing shows up bad or worn."

The three men each had a specific job and were working in separate areas. I could see Jimmy had become the actual leader among the mechanics and was teaching the three older men as they went. Jimmy was a lucky find for S&S.

About noon, I suggested that I take the men to Park Place for lunch. John asked, "The diner or the restaurant?"

"I think the restaurant, we'll have more privacy and it will be quieter."

"Good, I'll come along. I love the quiz sessions, as you know from your earlier training."

At Park Place, we ate in the dining room where we all had a nice salad and a huge sampler tray of miniature calzones. As soon as the waitress had taken our order and brought us iced tea, John and the three instructors bombarded me with question after question. All of the questions had been covered in the manual, so it really wasn't difficult. I just had to think of the individual answers as one would ask a question on the startup checklist, another would ask for the pressure reading for the cabin and where the sensors were. By the time we were finishing the calzones and my third glass of iced tea, my head was spinning. The final question was "What is the telephone number for additional pilot training?" It was on the last page of the book and I had seen it, but what was it.

I closed my eyes and thought really hard, picturing the page with the number in a small box. I recited the telephone number. One of the pilots said, "That's incorrect. That isn't the number."

I was thinking, well shoot, is this the only incorrect answer? Another of the instructors, an older man said, "That is the old number that is still forwarded to our office. It was in the manual up until three years ago. Where did you get your manual?"

John answered for me, "Lisa took the class about three years ago. That's where the number came from. The older pilot said, "You don't need the class, you've learned everything we could teach you from the manual. Let's go back to the air park and I'll let you show me through the instrumentation. If you've learned that well, I want to give you a check ride. You've done some studying and been trained by some good people."

Back at the hangar, we went through the instrumentation and I set up a few scenarios that were given. They gave me a list of information for a flight that I used a worksheet on. They were way off on fuel weights because of volume. They were also off on passengers and cubic feet of luggage. I gave the senior guy the discrepancies and he asked, "How did you come up with each of these discrepancies?"

"Actually, it was easy. I used the factory checklist and followed the sheet item for item."

He smiled at John and me saying, "You have a Lear jockey. Is yours free for a quick ride. I'd like to be back by five."

John had me use the tow motor and pull the S&S Lear out and go over the preflight. I had to get the fuel truck and I had to get Jimmy to come inspect an open cowl shield. Everything under the sun was wrong with the damn plane. Christ, who put this thing away like that. I finally said, "We can fly but that front tire is barely within specs. If we were on a charter, I wouldn't fly it. Somebody hasn't been checking this plane and put it away in bad shape."

John smiled, "That's what you're supposed to say and do. Jimmy fixed you up with a marginal airplane not ready to fly. This tells me and these men you know what to look for and where to look for it. Those are all safe flying habits. Jimmy's changing that tire now so we can take that check ride.

Once inside the cockpit, I found one more Jimmy trap. He had stuck a toothpick down on one of the switches and it wanted to jam and pop back up. I looked down at it and pulled the splinter out with my pocket knife. The switch seated fine and the indicator came on. In a couple of minutes, I was requesting instructions.

The S&S Lear leaped off the runway and at the appropriate heading for our assigned twenty-eight thousand feet. As we took off and climbed out, I kept going down the checklist one item at a time until I punched in the last of the numbers for Key West. The instructor talked me through a couple of emergency conditions and asked for the procedures. He had me change the flight plan to turn and do a landing at Melbourne, but where he wanted me to turn would but us in the bombing range near Sebring. I put in the alternates and flew inland because going out to sea would take us through the restricted area for the shuttle landing scheduled for that day. I told the instructor these things as he gave me constantly changing destinations. He finally said, "Take us home. I think you will be a safe pilot in the airplane. Want to do the G5 tomorrow?"

"Pardon me?"

"Let me check you out on the G5 tomorrow. Your log says you have three round trips overseas plus a couple of local trips of around fifteen hundred miles. Have you studied the manual for the G5 like the Lear?"

"I've only read through it once, but it's pretty similar to the Lear except for some more modern instrumentation and readouts."

"Well, we'll check you out on the manual and John says we can use a G5 in the morning until eleven. I'd like to see you handle it, but I think you know how."

I made a smooth landing in the Lear and taxied back to the hangar area. After we shutdown, I checked the next day's schedule for the plane, and noticed a long flight. I filled the tanks and did the overnight inspections and tagged the airplane as ready. I knew Jimmy went through the aircraft one more time before he went home, but I needed to do it right. I was feeling pretty full of myself, actually checked out and certified to fly a Lear and perhaps even the G5 tomorrow.

I went through the King Air 1900D to see if there were any write-ups on it. It was in good shape. I made sure there weren't any planned charters for it over the weekend and formally requested to use it. This was going to cost me some effort to pay for the plane up to Atlanta and back. Oh well, it's only time and money.

I suddenly had a chilling thought. I wonder if that creep would sic his lawyers on me over defending myself. I went to the break room and called Sarah. I explained the entire thing from yesterday and she said, "You should have sent him to jail. That would be easier. Look, I'll file suit real quick. You round up names and phone numbers for the witnesses. As soon as they say something or serve you, we'll have him arrested for defying the restraining order. That will make them pause and think this through. How much do you want this time?"

"Nothing, Sarah, I just want to be left alone."

She said, "What about me? I don't work for free."

I told Sarah, "Oh yeah, do whatever you want for yourself. Just make it clear that if they fuck with me, I'll talk to the Enquirer and whatever wrestling rags there are."

"I'll take care of you. Ah, don't go home tonight. That way you can't be served. I'll have him served before five. That will slow them down a little."

She hung up and all I could think of was, shit, now the asshole is keeping me from home. I was getting pissed.

I called Wanda and she said what I expected. She was laughing about it. "A process server came by to serve you, but of course you aren't here. I asked for a copy. I told the man I would have to put it into your file for a reprimand. The idiot called someone and they said to let me copy it. I did, and he's still looking for you. I just called Sarah about it and am waiting for her to pick up a copy. He wants to sue you for fifty million dollars. Where did he get a number like that from?"

"Thanks, Wanda, Sarah is on it and will respond to them today. She's serving both Bobby and Rocky because of the restraining order, so if they do serve me, they both go to jail. They will be held overnight since they have to appear in front of the judge who signed the restraining order. I don't think they will pursue Rocky's broken nose."

Lisa was back and I convinced her to drive me by Jonah's. We arrived there and didn't see the Cadillac from yesterday, so we went inside. Denise asked if I wanted a beer or the boss. I smiled and she pushed a button. Jonah and Millie came out. Millie hugged me then said, "Bobby called and wants me to testify that you attacked Rocky. I told her no way. She said she would even pay me to say it. Look, Chuck, what's right is right. You defended yourself after Bobby stopped you from leaving and Rocky attacked you. She asked me to get names and addresses of people who saw the fight yesterday for her lawyer. I got them together, but they are for you. Let me get them."

Jonah said, "Sorry you had such a bad time. Millie's really pissed at her sister and told her not to call when they put her in jail for breaking the restraining order. You were trying to help them out and they stopped you from getting out of here. Damn, it would have been so much easier. A newspaper guy came by here and asked about a fight between Rocky and some other guy. He wanted to know what happened and did anyone have any pictures. I told him the story wasn't true, so he left. What's your cell number so I can send you this picture that's circulating? It's really cool."

Jonah sent me the picture and Millie came out with the list of names. I asked her, "Do you have a fax. A bar doesn't need one, but do you?"

Jonah said, "We do, we're trying to start a new business. We'll talk to you about it. You may want to join us in it. We'll talk later; let's get this shit out of the way. Millie, take him in the back, but don't attack the poor boy. Just use the fax, not him."

We did use the fax quickly after I called Sarah's office to get her number. She called me almost immediately, "Her sister is willing to testify for you?"